messenger

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A person who carries a message or delivers something from one place to another.

   A messenger arrived with an urgent letter for the king.

2. 2
   noun

   A computer or phone program used for sending instant messages.

   She sent me the photos through a messenger app.

3. 3
   verb

   To send something by a messenger.

   I'll messenger the signed documents over this afternoon.

From Middle English messengere, messingere, messangere, from Old French messanger, a variant of Old French messagier (French messager), equivalent to message + -er. Doublet of messager. Displaced native Old English boda (“messenger, envoy”) and ǣrendraca (“messenger, ambassador”). For the replacement of -ager with -enger, -inger, -anger, compare passenger, harbinger, scavenger, porringer. This development may have been merely the addition of n, or it may have resulted due to contamination from other suffixes such as Middle English -ing and the rare Old French -ange, -enc, -inge, -inghe (“-ing”…

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